If there is one exercise which conduces more efficaciously than another to our sanctification, it is assuredly that of the presence of God. If one means be more conducive than another to attain that holy exercise, it would seem to be a true and solid devotion to the Heart of Jesus. His most holy Soul, being united to the Word, never lost the view of the Beatific Vision, although the beatitude and the joy of that Vision were by a miracle withheld from overflowing into the lower functions of His Soul, in order that He might be able to suffer in His Humanity.
The nearest resemblance to our Lord which some of the saints have attained in this respect may be found in such transient glimpses of the Divine Beauty as we find revealed in their lives. With those extraordinary ways by which God sometimes vouchsafes to visit a few favoured souls we have nothing to do at present. When we speak, therefore, in this meditation, of the habitual presence of God we refer but to that union of the soul with Him which was ordinary in the saints, and which may be attained - in more or less degree - by faithful correspondence with grace.
Our facility in maintaining the Divine presence will be measured by the extent of our knowledge of God, since in proportion to our knowledge of Him will be our love, and it is love that keeps us in the recollection of His presence, and that impels us to think of Him and of all that relates to Him. This the Heart of Jesus teaches us. His Soul saw God. It knew Him with a knowledge that no other soul but His could have supported. His love equaled His knowledge, and it was in the mysterious light of such knowledge and such love that He walked on earth - never alone, even in the midst of the most cruel abandonment on the part of creatures (John 16:32) - and He was never forsaken, even when given up to the pangs of supreme agony and dereliction.
That which proved the consolation of the human Heart of Jesus, and after Him of all His saints, may be the same in the case of each one of us. Let us but apply ourselves to know God's beauty and to hear His voice, and our hearts will quickly learn to turn towards Him, to seek His face, and delight in His presence. The consciousness of that presence will then become an abiding source of tranquil devotion and of peace of heart, if not of sensible joy. It will greet us, at our first awakening, with encouragement to commence another day of trial; it will follow us amidst our occupations, console us in our sorrows, support us in our temptations, until we shall sink to rest, when the day is over, in the bosom of that Father whom we have felt so near to us, and whose presence will be our last thought, lulling us to sleep in the calm consciousness of His protection.
As the appreciation of the excellence of this holy exercise increases, the soul finds more facility and more charm in occupying itself with God, and becomes, by degrees, more familiar with the thought of Him. It will love to recall the Gospel narratives of the Life of our Blessed Lord. It will in time learn to feel at home, as it were, amongst them, and thus it will be enabled to make for itself a solitude, a hidden life apart from the material life which externally surrounds it. This habit the Sacred Scripture calls "walking with God," for by it we make Him our companion here below.
It is of this habitual dwelling in the Divine presence that Jesus affords us so perfect a model in the Holy House of Nazareth.
Let us now consider the fruits of constant attention to the Divine presence, which are first produced in the heart, and from thence reflected throughout the whole life.
The Soul of Jesus looked ever upon the Father's Face, and as He looked the flames of love rose ever higher within His Sacred Heart. This is the testimony which He gives of Himself: "He that sent Me is with Me, and He hath not left Me alone; for I do always the things that please Him." (John 8:29)
If a servant, from the motive of fear, performs with care and attention those things which please his master, when he is conscious of that master's presence, how much more will the faithful soul do this from a motive of love in the presence of our Father in Heaven. Such will be the first result of this holy exercise. The more habitually it is practised, the more constant also will be the practice of virtue, since the soul's first desire will be to "do always the things that please" the Divine object of its love, of whose presence it is so conscious.
It must be remarked, however, that the actions which flow from this holy recollection in God have in them nothing forced, nothing constrained. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2nd Corinthians 3:17) The heart and mind are really where their treasure is, that is, in God and in those things which refer to His honour and glory; and this is true recollection, widely different from that studied and simply external modesty which is often exaggerated, which is maintained with effort, and which is perhaps sometimes assumed through spiritual vanity. When the interior eye has been really attracted by the Divine Beauty, exterior objects lose their charm, and are held in regard only so far as duty and charity demand. When the inward ear habitually listens to the Divine whisper, silence is then a joy and no longer a constraint. Habitual reverence will manifest itself in the whole exterior - a gentle, spontaneous, and unconscious reverence flowing from the union of the soul with God, and from the tranquil happiness which it experiences in the presence of its treasure.
Let us, then, beg a lively faith in the Divine presence, and the grace to acquire the sanctifying habit of walking in it continually, so that with truth we may say to God: "I am always with Thee." Then will virtues flourish in our souls beneath that genial influence, like flowers beneath the sun. Thus shall we grow in likeness to Jesus and make advance in our union with His Sacred Heart.
- text taken from the 1906 edition of The Heart of Jesus of Nazareth - Meditations on the Hidden Life; it has the Imprimatur if Bishop John Baptist Butt, Diocese of Southwark, England, 5 February 1890